Once our work is out there—or sometimes when we’re working on something to put “out there,” we begin to worry about securing it. There are so many outside threats to a creative work, and there so many situations that cause creators to clutch their proverbial pearls when they really should be embracing said situations. A bit vague, eh? Well, let’s talk about them.
Agent or Publisher Revisions
Let’s start with the first thing writers are likely to run into on their path to becoming authors: professional opinions. Sure, before you get to an agent or publisher, you should have already received editorial feedback and other constructive criticism during the writing process, but the first time you’re likely to encounter a “threat” to the creative work you made is when working with an agent or publisher. Because their opinions about your story come from a different place—the authoritative place of “do this or I won’t represent you” or “do this or I won’t publish your book”—and that can be difficult to navigate.
First, decide what matters to you to retain. Sometimes agents/publishers make suggestions that are actually suggestions, and you can still move forward with that professional without making the changes they recommend. For example, in my short story, “Cross My Heart and Hope to Rise,” which was published in an anthology that released Frida the 13th of June, the publisher requested that I add character names to the story. While that is a valid suggestion, I intentionally left names out of the story to give it a sense of anonymity and to leave those characters open for the reader to fill in names of whomever came to mind. While I was willing to create names if the publisher required it, I began by explaining where I was coming from and advocating for my decision to omit names. The publisher agreed with me after we talked, and the story stayed as written.
However, that is not always the case. I’ve mentioned this countless times in an authorly capacity, but my go-to example for why I chose the indie route for my books is the experience my favorite author, Juliet Marillier, shared in an interview years ago. When she was looking to publish her debut novel, her agent suggested that she make changes so the novel could be marketed as romance over historical fantasy. She added content to the book to make it fit what her agent suggested, and she was later picked up by one of the Big Five publishers. She had a lucrative stretch because of that content change (the agent’s marketing suggestion), though over time it became clearer that she was more comfortable with closed-door, wholesome companionship romance when her later books strayed further and further from that initially published content.
I took her story as a cautionary tale, because I could not imagine making a change like that to my writing. I had changes I was willing to make and changes I wasn’t. Agents and publishers have the power to request big content changes to a work they are representing, and then it comes to the author to decide if those content changes are ones they can live with or ones they can’t. If you care deeply about your content and don’t want to change it, don’t. The right publisher—or the right agent—will come. If you are willing to make the changes an agent or publisher recommends, then it seems you have already found your “right” one. It does not mean there is something wrong with you if you compromise on content, but don’t compromise on content if it breaks you to do so.
Copyright Infringement
Once our work is out there, or once we begin sending it to editors, agents, or publishers, we may begin to worry about the story being stolen. Unfortunately, while we can take precautions to prevent intellectual theft, such as ensuring we only send raw files to trusted sources, putting watermarks on the files, or ensuring the work is clearly timestamped, pirates are going to pirate. Copyright your work, secure the files, and keep records. Some content that may seem to be stolen is coincidental. I heard “wolf dragon” mentioned in Onward just months after my first “dragonwolf” book came out. Those creatures had nothing to do with each other. After building my world and its connection to Earth, I watched The Owl House and saw parallels in how the worlds were connected and what has come ad gone between worlds. When we’ve spent so much time in our stories, we’re going to see them everywhere, even when they aren’t there.
That said, copyright infringement does happen. As an editor, I’ve read so many shameless copies of mainstream works that are barely even off-brand versions of the originals. It is always possible to find infringement. If you do, keeping timestamped records allows you to prove your work is the original, and these records are the foundational materials that will aid you in any battle you may get into.
Adaptations
Certainly most writers since the booms of King, Rowling, and Martin, in particular, have thought about what would happen if their works were adapted for stage or screen. Along with that, we have likely thought about the nightmare that an unfaithful adaptation would be. A movie deal sounds like a great thing, and in most cases it would be. However, we have all seen unfaithful adaptations. I have seen some adaptations that are good in their own right despite the drastic changes made. One that comes to mind is Howl’s Moving Castle. The book is spectacular. The Ghibli film is a masterpiece. Yet, there are colossal differences between the two. Those who haven’t read the book wouldn’t know why Wales is significant to the story. There are significant plot points from the book that were omitted from the movie, but they are both wonderful independent of each other. Unfaithful adaptations would include examples like The Last Airbender movie. Without yucking anyone’s yum, there were fundamental changes like how the bending system works, changes to the pronunciation of character names, and changes to character mannerisms, like having a stoic Sokka. These sorts of changes turned many fans of the original series against the film adaptation.
Sometimes changes are fine, and sometimes they aren’t. We don’t know what kinds of changes someone will make to our work. There are provisions one can make, such as ensuring that any contract includes language about maintaining the integrity of the source material, but there is still a lot of trust given to the screenwriters and directors. While the possibility of an adaptation is a long shot, it’s certainly possible. Don’t get yourself too caught up in the “what if” dream of your own adaptation, but think about provisions you would want to make to ensure an adaptation is true to your story and includes all the details you want to be included—just in case that day ever comes.
AI
In these times, the concern of AI theft of creative work is ever present. There are dozens of AI art programs that use work stolen from artists online without crediting the original work. There are short stories, poems, and even full books that are “written” by AI. It has become so commonplace that publishers and organizations often specify that works that use AI in any capacity will be rejected and readers assume anything imperfect must have been AI. Unfortunately, putting any writing out in the world leaves it open to AI algorithms. Even just typing something out in Word could cause MS Copilot to store your data. Ebooks available through legitimate platforms are still susceptible to AI algorithms. Preventing AI theft is likely impossible. That doesn’t mean your work is for sure going to be copied by an AI algorithm. It just means you cannot prevent it if it were to happen. Steps can be taken in the event of AI theft if your work is copyrighted (the same that would be taken if you experience any other copyright infringement).
I have seen ChatGPT results for user queries that give me pause. Someone I know used it to get tattoo ideas, and when he showed me the breakdown ChatGPT had spit out for him, it looked good. It was organized well and included some buzz words, but there wasn’t anything there that an experienced artist, DM, or D&D player couldn’t come up with—because they have; that’s why that’s in the algorithm. I was concerned initially, and since I am currently in a hiatus because of the brain injury I sustained this year, it had me wondering if anyone would even care if I stopped publishing when AI can just spit out some soulless text that sort of fits. At the end of the day, I write because I love the world I created, and AI can’t take that.
I would argue that AI theft is less of a concern than human theft for the simple reason that AI is often extremely obvious by how awful it is. Sure, over time, there may be more of a concern there, but as long as AI is writing bad stories and generating images with extra appendages, we have some time before we need to worry about it more than any other kind of theft.
Fan Art
Now, for all the unsavory concerns we may have about our work, there are lovely connections too. Fan art is an amazing expression of love for something. While I have rarely seen criticism of fan art, it is out there, so here’s a brief callout: embrace fan art if you have some. Looking at my fan art reminds me just how much my books are loved. Someone used their own creative outlet to draw my characters. How can I not be humbled and awed by that? Encourage fans to create art because that not only shows their love for what you have done but also allows them to exercise their own creativity.
Headcanon
Headcanon is a natural element of fandom. In the books we read, the games we play, and the shows and films we watch, we become bonded to the characters and we imagine scenarios we weren’t explicitly given. If the author hasn’t said something goes one way or the other, the reader is going to have their own ideas about the fates of the characters. Sometimes headcanons can be small things. A nonspoilery headcanon of mine is that the cabbage guy from Avatar the Last Airbender is recognized by Bumi after his other struggles in the show, and Bumi makes him the Omashu official cabbage guy but Flopsy is his constant nemesis. Does that happen in the world of ATLA? Surely not. Am I going to believe it unless something canonical comes out that says something different? Oh, yes.
A reader told me their headcanon for Finn (from the Dragonwolf trilogy) at a festival. Revealing this headcanon would be a spoiler, but suffice it to say that it was something about the character’s handling of trauma that I had not written. I don’t intend to expand on that element at all, even though I will return to the character in future books, so I told the reader that their idea was interesting and that those choices made sense for Finn—because they do.
Headcanons are not harmful. If you are meeting a reader and their headcanon doesn’t match what you have planned for the character, whether or not you intend to publish those plans, don’t quash theirs. We like to think the characters we love or hate meet good or bad ends, and it’s a small thing to allow us those thoughts.
Fan Fiction
Fan fiction has always been a contested medium. I’ll be the first to confess that I have always thought of it as lesser—something done by children who just want to write themselves into the world. I have since learned that it is actually its own rich genre. Sure, there’s a lot of smut in there, but there’s also a big audience for that. Sure, a lot of it is self-insert writing, but what’s wrong with that?
Fan fiction is not another author taking your work and making money off of your ideas by creating new, competing stories. It’s an expression of someone who just cannot get enough of the world you have created. They need more. They need to know about little characters you only mention once. They need to imagine themselves in the world because they love it so dearly. They need to know what happens to the characters after the story. Sometimes we need to work things out for ourselves by writing them down. Writing can be therapeutic in many ways. I am writing fan fiction right now at a doctor’s recommendation, because it’s low-stakes writing that can work the parts of my brain that were damaged by my injury. Kids who start out writing fan fiction can become masterful adult authors.
At face value, someone copying your work is plagiarism, but fan fiction lives in a realm outside of that. Like fan art, it’s creation that is a fan’s expression of love for your work in a way that also exercises the fan’s own creativity. Fan fiction is pure human creativity.
TTRPG PCs, NPCs, and Campaigns
This mode of fan creation doesn’t apply to all stories, obviously, but it applies to more than we may think. There are instances like mine, where I have created a D&D core book and foundational system that’s made for players to use as a guide and make their own. RPGs (role-playing games) are all about making it your own. In the core book, I explain elements like how there should only be one Ranger at a time and that the Ranger should have forest dwarven blood. There should only be one Bard at a time. However, if someone wants to do a party of all bards, they totally can. It’s their game. If they want to take established characters and use them in their games, they totally can. If the characters don’t act like they do in the books, that’s okay.
I run a one shot at festivals that uses characters from Ranger’s Odyssey, and players have almost never played the characters as they actually are. And that’s okay. Because it’s a game inspired by the characters and the world and not a canonical story. I run an Ambergrovian campaign with my own group, and when my players were creating characters, they picked a time period when there is an established Ranger, an established Bard, and an established firebrand Elementalist—but three players picked those three classes. Now, I’m the author. I’m faced with running a TTRPG that scraps much of what I have established in the main story of my world, and it would be natural to fight that. However, this is a game within the world. As soon as the first player asked if he could be a Bard, I decided I would make our campaign an AU (alternate universe). In this universe, we have Teakroot instead of Salali. We have Varin instead of Mara. We have Lycastus instead of Ember. There are a few characters that overlap. The players will meet Lir, the crew of Hrossdraugr, and the villagers in Nimeda. Characters are still there, and it’s a rich, fun, character-driven adventure. If I leashed the players and packed them into the bounds of the novels, why even play?
Outside of full systems like mine, there’s also the potential for players or DMs (Dungeon Masters) to use known characters in their games, either directly or by description. I once created a female dwarven barbarian named Gimlia (Gimli, Lord of the Rings). I played a Baldur’s Gate 3 game as a dragonborn Oath of the Ancients Oathbreaker paladin that was intended to follow the storyline and choices of Draco from Dragonheart, and my Dream Guardian was designed to look like Bowen. It was a fun time. I’ve had a DM walk my party through a one shot clearly inspired by the Atlantis cartoon. It was awesome.
At the end of the day, RPGs are meant to be whatever the players make them, and use of established characters or stories in an RPG is a harmless expression of love.
Other Homages
An homage is just that: a respectful nod to a work you appreciate. As long as creators aren’t presenting your characters as theirs, let them have it. Cosplay is fantastic, and cosplayers often take liberties with the characters in their design, such as genderbending or color changes or the addition or removal of scars. Cosplayers are often not the body type of the character they portray. I went to Indy Comic Con years ago dressed as Jayne from Firefly. I had the Jayne hat, a Blue Sun shirt, boots, and utility pants, but I was an overweight woman with long hair. There were still people who saw me and said, “Oh! Jayne!” because I had recognizable elements of that character. It was an expression of love for the show in a setting that was all about expressing love for characters. Homages are everywhere, and they’re nothing to be concerned about.
Conclusion
There are so many different ways for a written work to be taken and changed. Some of these are welcome; some are not. At the end of the day, be mindful of the specific situation and only hold onto your work if it’s a situation that calls for it—certain professional situations, copyright infringement situations—and let your work go and be what your fans make it in other situations. Don’t be threatened by homages. It’s an honor to have someone love your work so much they want to draw them, make up their own stories about them, or play them in an RPG. Once your work is out there, it’s out there to be judged, it’s out there to be potentially stolen, but it’s also out there to be loved.
Tales of Ambergrove 